Hope for the good in people but expect the worst

[crashwg]

Normally I'd just say hope for the good in people but I had a bit of an eye opener this morning.

Here's the story, I'll try to keep it short.

I live in NH, we like the snow up here, skiing, snowboarding, sledding etc.  So this morning when it snowed the family (myself, GF and two girls 2 & 4) were pretty excited to go sledding.  So we went out around 10:45 in hopes to go sledding with the kids for a little bit and get the 4 y/o to preschool for 11:45.  On the way to the popular sledding hill there is a bit of a hill the road travels down on which the story gets interesting.  It was slippery, I should have known better growing up not far from where we live now but the excitement of it all...  You know, seeing the kids smile and all...  Anyways, the car in front of me started to slide a bit to the right, I do a little braking work to try and slow the van and keep it as much under control as possible but the inevitable happens and we skid over to the curb and end up swinging the back end of the van out into the middle of the road.  Then "smash" an SUV (think it was a durango) smashes into the rear right quarter panel.

Here's where I'll take a little break and say that EVERYONE WAS AND IS OK, with the exception of my GF hitting her head on the seatbelt hardware and getting a bit of an egg.  The kids were scared for only a few seconds and were calmed down fairly easily.

So realizing everyone was fine, the plan at that point was to get the heck off the road which was still posing extreme hazard.  I had talked to the driver of the SUV, a seemingly nice lady who was very apologetic and we had agreed that we'd get to the bottom of the hill and into the parking lot.  She proceeded down the hill while we waited for an opportunity to turn our backward facing van around and get down there also.  It took maybe 5 minutes before not a break in the traffic came but a police officer who stopped traffic so we could get down the hill to exchange information with the lady who hit us. 

I'm sure you can guess what happened then...  Yup, we get to the bottom of the hill and she's nowhere to be found. 

Moral of the story I guess is that you can't really trust anyone.  Wright down license plate numbers, take pictures if you can, do whatever you need to do to make sure you don't get screwed by some seemingly nice lady. 

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for a lot of things.  Most importantly that we are all OK with the exception of the egg on Lee-Ann's head.  That all the windows are intact, the sliding door still operates, the trunk is still closed (although it probably won't open) and that once I fix the broken tail lights, the van will still be getting us where we need to go until we can afford to fix it up, hopefully before inspection time in April...

I guess another "moral of the story" is to be had here.  Life may throw you a curve ball once in a while and when that happens we have to be thankful for what we have and press on.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody.  And for those in snow country, stay safe on those slippery roads!

[Donkey_Kong]

Sorry to hear about the accident. Glad to hear that for the most part your family is ok. 

[shardian]

She must have been a felon... or at least a dumbass. It wasn't her fault your car was out of control on a snowy hill. Why in the world did she hit the road?

[ChadTower]

Could have been any of a hundred reasons... but most of them fishy.  In NH insurance is not mandatory so the most likely reason is that she had no car insurance.

When I was in college I rear ended a guy at a stop sign... not hard, but I thought he was pulling out, so I hit the gas too, and he stopped.  Crash.  Then dude ran away like I was shooting at him.  Never understood that.

Few years later, in very dense traffic, a guy in a pickup goes to take a left across double laned traffic and doesn't see me in the inner lane... I slam right into his truck.  He decides it was the fault of the woman in the outer lane for waving him across and not his own fault, so he chases that woman down and tries to get her info, who of course wants nothing to do with it.  Surprisingly he came back to where I was still sitting and we exchanged info calmly.

You just never know how a person is going to react when they get out of the car after a car accident.

[unclet]

She was waiting for you at the bottom of the other hill .....

Seriously though .... glad everyone is alright.

[SavannahLion]

In California, Insurance is mandatory. Yet people still don't have it.

My last truck was lifted 6" over stock. For the most part, there's usually no problem unless some idiot in a car decides to tuck their car under the truck. Especially those little sporty coup types. One day, I felt a weird bump while I was waiting at a left turn. I turned around and it was two girls in a coup with a shocked look on their face and a two foot gouge on their hood. I motioned for them to pull over. When I pulled over, they kept on driving and sped off. The only damage I had was the removal of some rust.

AAnother accident happened two years later when some old guy was looking over his shoulder during a lane change and hit my truck. He hit it so hard that the bumper hit the windhsield and my rear tires were off the ground. Had to engage the front wheels to pull myself off. My truck was fine, but his car was totaled. The police arrived, the police took a report, insurance was exchanged... and I never heard anything from anybody except from my own insurance asking about his insurance information. Turns out he lied about his insurance and forged the documents. Go figure.

[ChadTower]

In CA is your registration tied to your insurance?  In MA you can't register a car without proof of insurance - and when your insurance is cancelled, they notify the RMV, who then cancels your registration.  If you don't pay your car insurance you end up driving without insurance AND without registration. 

[shardian]

In CA is your registration tied to your insurance?  In MA you can't register a car without proof of insurance - and when your insurance is cancelled, they notify the RMV, who then cancels your registration.  If you don't pay your car insurance you end up driving without insurance AND without registration. 

That's how it is here. I can't believe there are still states that don't require auto insurance as law.

[ChadTower]

NH is the only one around here that doesn't, I think, and that's by choice.  Live Free or Die.  No state income tax, either.

[boykster]

In CA is your registration tied to your insurance?  In MA you can't register a car without proof of insurance - and when your insurance is cancelled, they notify the RMV, who then cancels your registration.  If you don't pay your car insurance you end up driving without insurance AND without registration. 

Its not in WA; insurance is mandatory, but the legislature doesn't have the stones to make it tied to registration of the vehicle.   

[ChadTower]

Its not in WA; insurance is mandatory, but the legislature doesn't have the stones to make it tied to registration of the vehicle.   

The MA legislature has galactic stones, then.  For the last three decades here not only has it been tied to your registration but the state also sets insurance rates... so there is little benefit to competition amongst companies.  The only difference between then is things like local office service and how they respond to claims.

They're actually just about to deregulate pricing in 2008, I think - it's going to be chaos as some people's insurance is going to drop hard and others are going to double overnight.

[SavannahLion]

In CA is your registration tied to your insurance?  In MA you can't register a car without proof of insurance - and when your insurance is cancelled, they notify the RMV, who then cancels your registration.  If you don't pay your car insurance you end up driving without insurance AND without registration. 

What Shardian basically said. It gets weird when you start considering the intricies and catch 22's that go on here.

For instance, I had a hard time buying my first truck because the dealership wouldn't sell to me without proof of insurance. Insurance companies won't insure without a car. Catch 22. What you have to ask for is a "proof of promise to insure" or something weird like that. Stating that you have an insurance company willing to cover you.

l

[ChadTower]

Why would the car dealer care?  They shouldn't care if you take it home and bake it in a pie.  They don't have to register it for you.

[SavannahLion]

Why would the car dealer care?  They shouldn't care if you take it home and bake it in a pie.  They don't have to register it for you.

I have no idea. I've had the same question posed to me in the past. It seems some dealerships do, and some don't. I had the exact same issue when I got my second truck (I had insurance then anyways), but no issues with my third. But then again, the first two were purchased in California, the third was in Nevada.

It's also not like anyone without insurance couldn't get a car anyways. How many cars being sold on the road side are sold to people without insurance?

[ChadTower]

We have to have a plate (which means registration and insurance) here to drive the car off the lot... but I've known people that had it towed off without a problem.

[shardian]

What Shardian basically said. It gets weird when you start considering the intricies and catch 22's that go on here.

For instance, I had a hard time buying my first truck because the dealership wouldn't sell to me without proof of insurance. Insurance companies won't insure without a car. Catch 22. What you have to ask for is a "proof of promise to insure" or something weird like that. Stating that you have an insurance company willing to cover you.

l

I was totally gonna mention the "catch 22" issue, but didn't. I totally went thru that and it was a MAJOR pain in the rectal area.

I no longer deal with the DMV when getting new cars. My insurance company started offering tag and title service, which kicks total ass. They take care of all the paperwork for me, and take the hassle out of visiting the DMV.

[ChadTower]

Many dealers here can do that... they have an interface to the DMV that lets them get the tags and such for you (for a fee, of course).  They'll even work with the insurance agent if you're just adding a new vehicle to an existing policy or swapping vehicles on one.

[shmokes]

In California, Insurance is mandatory. Yet people still don't have it.

My last truck was lifted 6" over stock. For the most part, there's usually no problem unless some idiot in a car decides to tuck their car under the truck. Especially those little sporty coup types. One day, I felt a weird bump while I was waiting at a left turn. I turned around and it was two girls in a coup with a shocked look on their face and a two foot gouge on their hood. I motioned for them to pull over. When I pulled over, they kept on driving and sped off. The only damage I had was the removal of some rust.

AAnother accident happened two years later when some old guy was looking over his shoulder during a lane change and hit my truck. He hit it so hard that the bumper hit the windhsield and my rear tires were off the ground. Had to engage the front wheels to pull myself off. My truck was fine, but his car was totaled. The police arrived, the police took a report, insurance was exchanged... and I never heard anything from anybody except from my own insurance asking about his insurance information. Turns out he lied about his insurance and forged the documents. Go figure.

I secretly wish there were big fines involved with lifting your vehicle up to the point where your bumper is incompatible with the other cars on the road.

[SirPeale]

I secretly wish there were big fines involved with lifting your vehicle up to the point where your bumper is incompatible with the other cars on the road.

Why?  It's not his fault someone had to be a dumbass and get too freaking close.  There's absolutely no reason for it.

[tommy]

I secretly wish there were big fines involved with lifting your vehicle up to the point where your bumper is incompatible with the other cars on the road.

Why?  It's not his fault someone had to be a dumbass and get too freaking close.  There's absolutely no reason for it.

There are height laws on big trucks at least here in Florida, I'm not sure exactly what the height is but i know there are laws for this reason. Having a truck bumper at the height of a normal car windshield is not a good idea for obvious reasons in an accident.

[Ed_McCarron]

There are height laws on big trucks at least here in Florida, I'm not sure exactly what the height is but i know there are laws for this reason. Having a truck bumper at the height of a normal car windshield is not a good idea for obvious reasons in an accident.

Corollary: Should cars not be allowed to be too low as to be incompatible?  Who decides the height?

Better yet - require all cars to have REAL bumpers.  Steel.  No plastic.  I loved my Wrangler.  Took the back end clear off a Jetta that made a uturn in front of me and didn't even scratch my paint.

[danny_galaga]

Normally I'd just say hope for the good in people but I had a bit of an eye opener this morning.

Here's the story, I'll try to keep it short.

I live in NH, we like the snow up here, skiing, snowboarding, sledding etc.  So this morning when it snowed the family (myself, GF and two girls 2 & 4) were pretty excited to go sledding.  So we went out around 10:45 in hopes to go sledding with the kids for a little bit and get the 4 y/o to preschool for 11:45.  On the way to the popular sledding hill there is a bit of a hill the road travels down on which the story gets interesting.  It was slippery, I should have known better growing up not far from where we live now but the excitement of it all...  You know, seeing the kids smile and all...  Anyways, the car in front of me started to slide a bit to the right, I do a little braking work to try and slow the van and keep it as much under control as possible but the inevitable happens and we skid over to the curb and end up swinging the back end of the van out into the middle of the road.  Then "smash" an SUV (think it was a durango) smashes into the rear right quarter panel.

Here's where I'll take a little break and say that EVERYONE WAS AND IS OK, with the exception of my GF hitting her head on the seatbelt hardware and getting a bit of an egg.  The kids were scared for only a few seconds and were calmed down fairly easily.

So realizing everyone was fine, the plan at that point was to get the heck off the road which was still posing extreme hazard.  I had talked to the driver of the SUV, a seemingly nice lady who was very apologetic and we had agreed that we'd get to the bottom of the hill and into the parking lot.  She proceeded down the hill while we waited for an opportunity to turn our backward facing van around and get down there also.  It took maybe 5 minutes before not a break in the traffic came but a police officer who stopped traffic so we could get down the hill to exchange information with the lady who hit us. 

I'm sure you can guess what happened then...  Yup, we get to the bottom of the hill and she's nowhere to be found. 

Moral of the story I guess is that you can't really trust anyone.  Wright down license plate numbers, take pictures if you can, do whatever you need to do to make sure you don't get screwed by some seemingly nice lady. 

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for a lot of things.  Most importantly that we are all OK with the exception of the egg on Lee-Ann's head.  That all the windows are intact, the sliding door still operates, the trunk is still closed (although it probably won't open) and that once I fix the broken tail lights, the van will still be getting us where we need to go until we can afford to fix it up, hopefully before inspection time in April...

I guess another "moral of the story" is to be had here.  Life may throw you a curve ball once in a while and when that happens we have to be thankful for what we have and press on.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody.  And for those in snow country, stay safe on those slippery roads!

i feel for you. a lot of us have probably had that experience. when it happened to me, i think the guy was drunk. i should have called the cops but i was young and trusted he would do the right thing. 

im more tenacious now because of that experience. ive even gone as far as the small claims court to get my money for repairs (yes, ive actually 'sued' someone!)

[patrickl]

There are height laws on big trucks at least here in Florida, I'm not sure exactly what the height is but i know there are laws for this reason. Having a truck bumper at the height of a normal car windshield is not a good idea for obvious reasons in an accident.

Corollary: Should cars not be allowed to be too low as to be incompatible?  Who decides the height?

They should all comply to the same regulation for bumper height.

Better yet - require all cars to have REAL bumpers.  Steel.  No plastic.  I loved my Wrangler.  Took the back end clear off a Jetta that made a uturn in front of me and didn't even scratch my paint.

If you hit a car in the side then you inflict more damage on the car you hit yes.

All bumbers have steel underneath the plastic. The plastic is just there for looks.

[Ed_McCarron]

No, really?  Theres steel under there?   

My point was the bumpers made of EXPOSED steel end up costing less to repair.   Think 1970's vintage anything.

[crashwg]

No, really?  Theres steel under there?   

My point was the bumpers made of EXPOSED steel end up costing less to repair.   Think 1970's vintage anything.

So your point is that cars should be designed with only form in mind and function not only takes a backseat but is rather thrown out of the car?

[clanggedin]

Here in Utah you have to show proof of insurance on your car in order to get a loan financed. If the lender does not receive proof that you have not added your new car to your policy then they stick you with their insurance which is super expensive.

If someone finances a car and doesn't insure it, then if it gets wreck they will be less likely to keep paying on the loan. The bank repos a totalled vehicle ans loses even more money, but if you are insureced then you will be much more likely to keep paying on it and the bank won't lose money.

On people with less than stellar credit - many of the lender will require at least an extended warranty and sometime GAP so they won't lose money if the vehicles ever breaks down or gets wrecked.

[ChadTower]

That's not a Utah thing - that's just how banks work.  They want their asset (and it is their asset until you have paid it off) insured.  This isn't a result of the law.

[Ed_McCarron]

No, really?  Theres steel under there?   

My point was the bumpers made of EXPOSED steel end up costing less to repair.   Think 1970's vintage anything.

So your point is that cars should be designed with only form in mind and function not only takes a backseat but is rather thrown out of the car?

Eh?  I thought I implied the opposite.

Function over form.  Make a solid, sensible bumper that works on all vehicles and doesn't take aesthetics into account.

Betcha it'd save lives.

[crashwg]

No, really?  Theres steel under there?   

My point was the bumpers made of EXPOSED steel end up costing less to repair.   Think 1970's vintage anything.

So your point is that cars should be designed with only form in mind and function not only takes a backseat but is rather thrown out of the car?

Eh?  I thought I implied the opposite.

Function over form.  Make a solid, sensible bumper that works on all vehicles and doesn't take aesthetics into account.

Betcha it'd save lives.

Uh, yea... Don't know how I got that backwards but what I meant was the opposite!